Whimsical animation for all the family – that’s the reputation computerized ‘toon mega-studio Pixar has cultivated in its 20 years of hitting cinema screens. The highest Pixar has ever reached in terms of classification is a soft PG; the studio’s latest effort, The Good Dinosaur, earned the rating for no more than some mild, dino-based threat, with the film hardly containing the kind of stuff that’s going to keep any children awake at night.
The Good Dinosaur is actually, curiously, a rarity in that sense. You see, despite the animation house’s frequent family-appealing ratings and its reputation as a peddler of child-friendly entertainment, Pixar’s films have aired a fair share of unsettling material. Most of it’s universal, but every so often Pixar will plumb the depths of darkness for some atypically distressing story beats.
This list is for all the times that the people at Pixar temporarily lost their minds, forgot their target market and went out of their way to upset, disturb or generally unnerve the crowd.
Without further ado, here are eight times that Pixar got really, fucking dark.